Menu

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ben Affleck 'loves New Zealand.' Yeah right

Some New Zealanders took umbrage at the portrayal of New Zealand’s involvement in the Iran crisis way back in the late 70’s in the film Argo. The historical reality of the event was distorted badly if not dishonestly. To many young film goers of the present such a presentation would paint New Zealand in a bad light, particularly from an American point of view. That New Zealand stood by, as the movie portrays and did nothing to help in the crisis is an unfortunate but typically Hollywood way of ‘rewriting history.’

Oh yes, Ben sort of wiggled his way out of what could have been a delicate situation, but in the end some damage has been done to NZ’s reputation. The facts of the matter are of course very different. Why did Hollywood choose to go down the path it took? Why----it does so regularly and if generations of film-goers have been misled, then I guess it is their own fault in that they rely on their world vision being informed by a ‘fantasyland’ industry that has influenced every nation on earth with its story-telling.’

Therein encompasses the position we should all take before we overreact. Films are generally just that; a form of storytelling where the facts are often substituted in the name of entertainment. New Zealand should just move on, as our ‘esteemed’ Prime Minister, John Key stated in the New Zealand Herald. Hell, if we take Argo too seriously we will have the world believing that New Zealand really does have a population of Hobbits living in cave-like dwellings, surrounded by enchanted forests and fairies. Oops, that’s true, isn’t it?